I’m a cop. If you don’t want to get hurt, don’t challenge me.

Race is the reason that they are in this predicament to begin with, i.e. slavery, Jim Crow, criminal sentencing policy, etc., etc.

I have no said that policies have failed because policies are designed to be racist. What I am arguing is that blacks in America remain downtrodden because we have failed to implement policies that effectively help them overcome institutional racism.

 

a) I'm not so sure I would characterize the inability to bring an end to deeply ingrained cultural and institutional racism a policy failure.

b) You face an uphill battle convincing the poor, the working poor and middle-class folks that the establishment of minimum labor standards are policy failures that are hurting them.

 

Since we're still talking about policy failures, and because I brought up the suburban model as part of it, I submit this, which illustrates the larger problem with Ferguson in general:

http://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2014/8/25/stroad-nation.html#.U_tphmO_USw

 

If a policy, set of policies, or historical trajectory of policies fail(s) to ameliorate that towards which it/they were targeted, what do you want to call it?

 

You could add expensive tats to the list of unnecessary items.

 

I'd characterize it as a societal lack of understanding and/or acknowledgement (as well as outright denial) as to the depth and and scope of the problem.

Generally, at least, the polices themselves have brought about modest, incremental progress over a period of decades. Essentially, we all suffer from a lack of collective will (and perhaps a lack of ability and imagination as well) to confront the underlying issues given their enormity, complexity and expense.

 

That is a really interesting piece. One factor contributing to the rising number of homeless coming to my inner-ring suburban church's shelter is people in low-wage jobs having to choose between a car and an apartment. They need the car to get the work, and apartment prices are spiking, so the car, it is.

There are a zillion books and articles out there about the decline of inner-ring suburbs such as Ferguson. Where I live, we're fortunate that we're holding our own, though it can't hurt that -- to prevent the white flight that settled it -- you have to pay a hefty tax if you sell your house and move out of town (you don't pay it if you stay in town). But even there you can see strip malls and old stores that are just worn out. There are efforts to put more life into the main drag "downtown," but they're held back by resistance to higher-rise buildings, and -- the big issue -- that the main street is a six-lane highway that you can't walk across without risking sure death.

 

Perhaps a moratorium on whites moving from cities to suburbs might help.

It was not legislated but Brooklyn's been reborn as a result of white folks
moving there instead of to the burbs.

 

Regarding policies, income inequality -- and especially the rise of it -- is a huge one. So is a tax structure that when all taxes are factored in, the person making $30K pays the same 20 percent as the person making $1M or more.

 

Because you don't go from slavery to middle class in just a few generations. But they were making steady progress leading up to the middle 1960s. They've digressed since then.

 

This could be an Internet record for patronizing posting.

They should have gotten themselves out of slavery earlier and they definitely should have gotten themselves some equal schools and equal treatment earlier. But you know, the road from slavery to the middle class is a long one, and I admire the way they were making it!

 

Your argument being that a social safety net disincentivizes work, right?